Modern solar cells can be produced depositing various layers such as silicon containing layers on a substrate. A solar cell is a device that converts light energy into electrical energy. One method to evaluate the economic costs of a solar cell is to calculate the price of a solar cell panel per delivered kW-hour. Accordingly, it is on the one hand desirable to have low cost production. Further, on the other hand, the conversion efficiency of a solar cell should be optimized for increasing the power output. A promising candidate for solar cell manufacturing, are solar cells including silicon layers or silicon containing layers.
Silicon containing layers for solar cell production are often deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). However, sputtering of silicon thin-films, silicon nitride thin-films or other silicon-containing films can be used for reducing costs for solar cell production.
During sputtering atoms are emitted from a target by bombardment with e.g. high energy ions. The atoms of the target material are deposited on a substrate to generate a silicon containing layer. It has been found that sputtering of silicon films from conventional rotary silicon targets may not result in a good conversion efficiency of a solar cell. Thus, there is a need for an improved target for sputtering silicon thin-films.